Iterviews?

[Denny Kyser]

When and where do you get your interviews. The Bride wants us to interveiw several people. Her parents, grooms parents, grandparents, best man, etc. She has asked us to do it at the tables at the reception.

I do have a great Sony voice recorder PCM D-50 and Sennheiser handheld mic, but wonder if the voices will be clear enough with all the comotion going on.

What do you guys do.

Denny

[Andre Tira]

I either do them later at the reception or cocktail hour. I always use a hand held mic.

[Don Bloom]

on the rare occassions that I DO interviews I take the people out of the room into quiter area use a handheld either wired or wireless. In the room at the table is wat too noisey and too much commotion going on.
Don

[Dave Blackhurst]

My technique is to get someone from the wedding party or a family friend to act as interviewer - have a handheld (preferably wireless) mic so they can get in close - background noise is a problem otherwise. I've done them with pretty obnoxious background noise levels, and it's doable, catches the excitement and ambience of the event - if you get a good interviewer, you get some great stuff - and you concentrate on camera and sound monitoring (have signal in headphones to confirm you've got the feed!)

[Dawn Brennan]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

My technique is to get someone from the wedding party or a family friend to act as interviewer - have a handheld (preferably wireless) mic so they can get in close - background noise is a problem otherwise. I've done them with pretty obnoxious background noise levels, and it's doable, catches the excitement and ambience of the event - if you get a good interviewer, you get some great stuff - and you concentrate on camera and sound monitoring (have signal in headphones to confirm you've got the feed!)

Thats a cool idea. Do you just try to find an outgoing person and pick them out or do you ask everyone if they'd be interested in doing it? I have a few that have requested these interviews this year and I am looking for new ways to do them. Do you tell them how to do it and what questions to ask or just let them run with it and see what they come up with? Thanks Dave (and sorry for hijacking the post).

[Richard Wakefield]

i'm not sure i'd call it 'interviewing' what i do.

i simply go up to people and ask politely if they'd like to leave a special message for the bride and groom - to say what they've thought of the day so far, and any good wishes for their future etc.

that one sentence is enough to get quite a few people leaving suitably long messages.

and you'll find that after you've convinced one or two people, other people can't wait to come and do their own.

another hint is to approach the best man, or close friend to the B+G, and ask them to point out the B+Gs close family and friends. otherwise u'll end up asking way too many people, even the wedding crashers :)

i've made that mistake of getting the messages in the evening...bad idea! drunks, noisy, dark!
i always aim for the 'mingling time' inbetween the ceremony and meal time...normally around the formal photo shoot time.

[Art Varga]

Denny - I learned a lesson at my very first wedding. I did interviews at the tables during the reception. I got about 15, some of them very good. The client didn't ask for these so I was doing it as an extra. As it turns out I missed "one" key person, an uncle. The customer was actually upset about it. Since then, I only do interviews where it "feels" right, mostly at Cocktail Hour or as if I make eye contact with someone in the lobby who looks like they may want to speak. Also, if you're planning to attend the rehearsal, this is another opportunity to pick up some soundbites.

Art

[Dave Blackhurst]

Originally Posted by Dawn Brennan

Thats a cool idea. Do you just try to find an outgoing person and pick them out or do you ask everyone if they'd be interested in doing it? I have a few that have requested these interviews this year and I am looking for new ways to do them. Do you tell them how to do it and what questions to ask or just let them run with it and see what they come up with? Thanks Dave (and sorry for hijacking the post).

I watch for who is outgoing in the bridal party - look for the ham <wink>. The downside to using someone in the wedding is your time is limited as they usually have other obligations, but you can sneak in some time. The other option is to ask either before or at the wedding if there's a guest that they know is outgoing.

I've had weddings where it was IMPOSSIBLE to get anyone to speak without using this approach - it helps to have someone that (you hope) the guests are familiar with. Everyone has seen "man on the street" style interviews, so it's pretty easy to get people to open up this way.

Work the room (or crowd) methodically, and if you know there are FAMILY tables, get them as early as possible so you aren't rushed, or set a time to get them aside towards the end (keeping in mind "later" everyone gets fatigued, drunk or simlply fried...).

To avoid what Art mentioned, it helps to ask in advance if there are any "special" guests that are high priority interviews - often with out of town and elderly guests this may be the one time they get their thoughts recorded, and it can mean a LOT to a couple later.

I actually find these are sometimes the most fun to edit and many times it's packed with all the elements that make for great video - emotion, humor, sometimes a great story from the past, etc.

[Denny Gay]

One thing we have been playing with is to have a camera (anything will do) set up outside where all the guests are leaving and wlking by. You flip the display around so they can see themselves and just ask them as they are walking past "would you like to say somethig nice for the b and g" Usually 9 out 10 will say something.

We then take all this footage cut it and dice it how you like and then play it in a small window scaled down (that's why a lower quality camera can handle this) while the credits roll by. If you need some music to fill background just keep in at a low volume.

Works out great and people might tend to say a little something more personal if they are in an enviroment by themselves.

[Jim OBrien]

I've found that a handheld mic usually does a good job of isolating the person speaking so background sound isn't too much of a problem. I've interviewed people a few away from a DJs blaring speaker and it was still understandable, just remind people to hold the mic real close to their mouth.

I find it hard to get people to go out to another, quieter location to do the interviews. You have to track them down, push through a crowd to get to your spot, they get distracted by someone they haven't seen in years along the way, then once they're done you have to go back to the party and find someone else - that's a lot of running around.

I usually wait until later in the evening to start interviewing, after people have had a little something to drink and they are more relaxed and talkative. I've found that if you start too early people are more shy and you won't get as many willing to say something. Of course, you can't wait too late otherwise they've had too much to drink and then it gets ugly! :^)